Kay
Pollard

Project Manager

Kay’s career includes professional experience in the private and public sectors. In the public sector, she directed statewide workforce development projects in collaboration with multiple public-private, federal, state and local partners, agencies, business, and industry. Her project experience is diverse and spans from statewide professional development, training and performance improvement initiatives, to curriculum design, publication writing, skills certification, information technology and performance reporting.

Prior to joining the GWDB, Kay was part of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Workforce System Coordination Division, its Workforce Development Division and statewide Business Services Field Operations. In those roles, her projects included serving as the editor and contributing writer of Minnesota’s current edition of its nationally and internationally recognized Creative Job Search book. More than 50,000 copies of this edition are in circulation. She was a member of the implementation team for the Itasca Project’s public-private Workforce Alignment Initiative – Real-Time Talent using Wanted Analytics. Kay led the statewide launch and administration of two skills training and certification projects - Minnesota’s National Career Readiness Certification (NCRC) initiative in partnership with ACT, Inc. Kay managed Minnesota’s participation in Microsoft’s Elevate America digital skills training initiative that was conducted in partnership with the National Governors Association.

Her private industry experience includes senior executive positions in the financial services and publishing industries, including the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and she owned a marketing and digital media consulting company. She has a decade of experience in post-secondary education administration that includes in-classroom adjunct faculty at three universities. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Speech, Theater and English from Bemidji State University, a MS Ed from the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse, and a Professional Train-the-Trainer Certificate from the University of Minnesota.